Must-See Exhibition: The Franklin Institute Presents The Art of The Brick, The World’s Largest Display Of LEGO Art, February 7-September 6

On February 7, The Franklin Institute will open The Art of The Brick, a huge exhibition of art made entirely of LEGO bricks.(Photo courtesy The Franklin Institute)

Calling all LEGO fans!

Anyone who has enjoyed clicking two LEGO bricks together — which is essentially everyone — should report to The Franklin Institute to check out its latest special exhibition, The Art of the Brick.

Opening Saturday, February 7, The Franklin Institute will unveil the world’s largest display of LEGO art in a traveling exhibition making its Philadelphia debut.

The Art of the Brick displays more than 100 works all made completely of LEGOs — from recreations of masterworks like Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to original works of LEGO sculpture, including a 20- foot-long T-Rex dinosaur skeleton.

Don’t miss this incredible display of creativity.

The Exhibition

In a show that’s a tribute to artistic ingenuity, The Art of the Brick showcases more than 100 works created entirely from LEGOs by contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya.

Sawaya is the first artist ever to create an exhibition of LEGO art — that is, using LEGO bricks as the artistic medium — and his work has traveled around the world for the past seven years.

In Philadelphia, the exhibition takes on several new components, including a practically life-sized Liberty Bell created by Sawaya exclusively for Philadelphia.

Broken out by type of LEGO artwork, guests can wander through galleries of LEGO re-creations of acclaimed artworks, 3-D classic sculptures (look out for Rodin’s The Thinker,) in addition to a 20-foot long LEGO T-Rex, original works of pop-art style pieces by Sawaya and much more.

Each work is made up of anywhere from a couple hundred to tens of thousands of LEGO bricks, and it’s fascinating to check out the gallery notes to see just how many LEGOs went in to the creation of each piece.

At the end of the exhibit, guests can leave their mark on the show by signing a LEGO brick and adding it to the Philadelphia LEGO wall of art.

The exhibition features both original works and scaled reproductions of masterworks, including the Mona Lisa.
(Photo courtesy The Franklin Institute)

For more on The Art of the Brick, see below.

Opening Weekend

Opening on Saturday, February 7, The Art of the Brick will be welcomed to the museum with a big brick-filled bash.

Kicking off at 10 a.m., opening day festivities include the debut of the interactive play area Ben’s Brick House, a LEGO-builder challenge, robot demonstrations and more.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., visitors should look out for appearances by Star Wars characters — who are all popular figures in LEGO sets — including Stormtroopers, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and C-3PO.

Plus, at 10 a.m., noon and 3 p.m., families can queue up to see free screenings of The LEGO Movie in the Franklin Theater.

A day of LEGOs, Star Wars, free movies and more? Sounds like a perfect family-friendly Saturday to us.

Admission to The Art of The Brick in the center’s Mandell Center varies by the time of day.

Daytime tickets are $29.50 for adults and $25.50 for children ages three through eleven. Entry after 5 p.m. costs $19.50 for adults and $15.50 for children ages three through eleven. Admission for member adults is $10 and $8 for member children.

Note that daytime special exhibition tickets include access to The Franklin Institute’s permanent exhibitions, too, and the evening tickets include only The Art of the Brick.

The Art of The Brick at The Franklin Institute
When: February 7-September 6
Where: The Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th Street
Cost: Daytime, $29.50 for adults, $25.50 for children; After 5 p.m., $19.50 for adults, $15.50 for children; Members, $10 for adults, $8 for children
More info: www.fi.edu

Check out a very cool teaser video for the exhibition below.

Massive sculptures made with thousands of LEGO bricks make up the sculpture garden of The Art of the Brick exhibition.(Photo courtesy The Franklin Institute)

I viewed this exhibit yesterday. Considering the image associated with this exhibit is the Yellow Brick piece I was disappointed by all the recreations. Especially with many of them looking too distorted to be considered good replicas. As for the original section some of it was intriguing particularly the Hands piece. But ultimately what this exhibit suffers the most is artist Nathan Sawaya’s glaring corniness. Some of the descriptions of the pieces will elicit eyerolls. 3 stars at the most. Probably not worth the price since you pay to enter the museum too.